Sing Me to Sleep (DESTINY!)

[Destiny]

Serra glanced up as she heard Atem making his way back towards her. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. As the moonlight rippled across his pelt she couldn't help but notice just how perfect and handsome he looked. FInally she pulled her pools away from him. Wincing slightly as he pulled the stone easily from her pad. She perked her ears. Listening as he spoke. There was a beautiful sound too his voice. Obeying she shoved her paw into the snow. At first the pain still seered through her. But the snow's icy coldness was numbing the pain from her pad.SHe realized he was right. The coldness would cool the blood and freeze it. Or so she thought. SHe was probably wrong in assuming this. SHe usually was. "Thanks." She murmured quietly. Not used too having anyone helping her in any way. Except maybe her father, and SUnblaze. But they were family.

[Ärï]

Atem inclined his head politely when the femme thanked him. He couldn't help but notice that she looked a little uneasy and maybe embarrassed at having someone else help. He knew all about that. Sitting back on his hunches near the femme, Atem looked up at the moon casting its cold light upon the two dark figures. Stars reflected in his topaz orbs, silver light highlighting his night-shaded coat. He looked mysterious and perhaps to the innocent of mind, frightening. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Atem noticed that Serra, though harsh on the outside, had her own beauty. A small, almost invisible smile curled his velvet maw as his gaze returned to the star-scattered heavens above. "Why give up, why give in? It's not enough, it never is. So I will go on until the end" Atem murmured, voice nearly lost in the silence of the night.

[Destiny]

Serra rolled back on her haunches for a moment. Then sat down completely. Left paw still buried in snow. Completely numb by now. A shiver went down her spine. The scars on her left paw brought back horrible memories. Memories of Ronin attacking her. Trying to kill her. Memories of Thite saving her from a near drowning. She remembered receiving one or two of the scars when she had argued with Fate. SHe hated that femme as much as her uncle.Both og them, from what she had seen, were vicious wolves. Her right leg was completely free of scars or wounds. For a moment she pondered why Ronin had favored snapping at her left leg. Her auds perked slightly at Atem's words. SO quite she had too strain her ears too make them out. Raising her crown she gazed at the endless beauty of the shimmering moon. The stars glittered in the sky like beautiful beacons of hope. "Why do we bother to go on? This life is filled with heartache and tragedy. Of senseless fighting all around us. So why do I bother to go on." SHe murmured quietly.

[Ärï]

Atem flicked his ears to the side to catch Serra's words. "I'm a soldier, wounded so I must give up the fight. There's nothing more for me, lead me away, or leave me lying here." Atem's words were spoken soft, his memory going back to the death of the Destinian that had taken him in. She had died fighting in some battle or another, protecting him when he was still too young and half-wounded. Slowly, Atem rose to his paws, eyes no longer on the sky. Instead, he stared at the ground, ivory under his shadowy paws. His gaze flicked to Serra's scarred foreleg. "I'm wounded so I can't go on..." Atem sighed softly and began trudging slowly through the snow, his pace slow and not heading toward the packlands anymore, just somewhere, an undecided place on the horizon.

[Destiny]

Serra lowered her gaze from the breathtaking sky above her bony crown. Turning her sapphire gaze on Atem once more. She noticed as he glanced at her scarred forleg. But she pretended not too. No one ever asked about it. They just assumed the scars were all battle wounds. Probably wondering what had happened to the other wolf. His words were quieter now, or so it seemed. As he rose to his paws she rose as well. He was heading away from the packlands now. She followed. Keeping pace, her paw was too numb for her too feel any pain from it. "Everyone says that life has a meaning. You must have faith. Must have hope. That everyone has a destiny. And everyone has a fate. I say, what does it matter. Without a purpose, none of the above have a meaning." Her words held a tinge of sadness. But otherwise, she sounded rather hollow.

[Ärï]

"Fate, Hope, Destiny. They've all died, ceased to mean a thing. Our lives are what we make them, hollow, full or an unhill war." Atem sighed softly, breaking a path through untouched snow as he walked, a black imperfection on a marble white landscape. The wind blew and the brute turned his head to one side, looking away from Serra. As he moved, the fur on the ruff of his neck shifted revealing the ugly scar laying beneath. His near-death mark, reminding him how easily he can loose his life and just how much, or how little, he has to loose. Realizing what his movement showed, Atem quickly fixed his gaze once more straight in front, hoping the fae hadn't been watching. Not very many Destinians knew that scar lay under his untouched ebony pelt.

[Destiny]

Serra nodded her head."True." She glanced at him now. The mark on his neck. It was so...familier. Suddenly she halted. Staring at it. He moved and it disappeared under his ebony fur. A shiver crept along her spine. "How did you get that scar?" She asked the question warily. Keeping pace with him again now. She knew exactly where she had seen a scar like his before. On the right side of her neck she carried her own near death mark. Dearest uncle Ronin had been quit the determined soul in his quest for murder. Only Sunblaze and Thite, among the living, knew of it's existence. They had been there.

[Ärï]

Atem visibly flinched when she asked about the scar. He stopped walking and his amber eyes turned foggy, fixed on the ground. "One of the brutes trying to kill my family" he murmured. "I was the last one. They decided to have some fun." His voice dripped with dislike and disgust. "They threw me around by my neck until they thought it killed me. It should have but instead I was damned to keep living, keep feeling pain and keep suffering." Atem closed his eyes. A lone tear like a small diamond rolled down his velvet muzzle, dropping into the snow at his paws. A slight shiver ran down his back as he slowly began to walk forward again. "You know abuse. I know torture."

[Destiny]

A strange emotion welled over Serra. Sympethy.This poor brute had been tortured. She'd been attacked and abused by family. But he had literally been tortured. As he began to walk forward again she paused. COnsidering something. Then caught up to him. The femme padded in silence. Walking so close that her fur almost brushed his. SHe didn;t know whjat to say. SOmething told her he didn't want pity. So she remained quite. She tilted her head away from him now. The wind ruffled her fur the wrong way. Revealing the long scar on her neck. FOr a moment she gazed off into the distance. Into the nothingness. Then she turned her crown back towards him. Sympathy in her sapphire eyes.

[Ärï]

Lost in memories of pain and bloodshed, Atem barely noticed that Serra continued walking beside him. He could sense her sympathy, badly inturpitated into pity. Atem had never felt sympathy, not from or to another wolf. All he knew was the pitying stares of other wolves when he had been a young scarred GreyMist wolf, unwilling to trust and recluse. He hated feeling pitied. It made him feel weak, worse then when he had actually been tortured. His eyes traveled down, looking at a scar running down his inner right foreleg, hidden from common sight. Another little mark left by his tormentors.

The burning feel of sapphire eyes on him made his fur prickle, a bit uncomfortably. Feeling Serra's gaze, Atem pulled his honey-colored orbs from the hidden scar to meet the femme's gaze. The eye contact lasted a heartbeat or two before Atem tore his eyes away. "Two born alike yet worlds apart" he murmured, as if thinking something over, mulling over a new concept. Serra smelled of other wolves, the femme in the den and that oversized walking pile of ice. The other femme could only be Serra's sister, not only from their similar scents but also, Serra didn't seem the type to stand other femmes too well.

[Destiny]

Serra's pelt prickled slightly as Atem raised his gaze too her. For an instant she held his gaze. His honey pools were endless, or so it seemed. FInally she looked away. A smile developing inside her as she noticed him glancing away around the same time. SHe really hoped he had not misinterperted her sympathy as pity. If he was like her, that would only make him angry. She knew very well that she had never felt sympathy for another wolf before. And that it was unlikely that any might have felt it towards her. SHe also knew that she hated being pitied. Sometimes, when they hadn't known she was listening, Hope would murmur with Faith about how much she pitied her. Fate had done the same thing once or twice. SHe remembered all too clearly how that had made her blood boil. How she had lusted too kill something when wolves pitited her. How she hated it.

Serra perked her auds. What had he just said? Two born alike yet worlds apart... That was an interesting concept. And choice of words, and timing. Serra's thoughts flickered too her family for a moment. Fate, Ronin wolves she despised. Faith, Hope wolves who held little meaning too her. Kojo, Sunblaze wolves closer too her, yet not overly close. Then there was Thite, he annoyed her a lot. And those three faes she had led... what had there names been? SHe couldn't remember now. SUnblaze's pups had been born but she had yet too see them. She didn't want too yet. SHe wasn't sure she could handle it. Then, there was Atem. This complete stranger. Yet...

[Ärï]

Atem noticed Serra thinking over his words. She seemed a little interested and maybe a bit confused by his choice of words. Atem wasn't surprised. Few wolves fully understood half of the thngs he said on the rare occasions he said something at all. Wolves were so accustomed to his silence and observing nature that they were nearly startled from their fur when he actually did voice an opinion or bring up an option that hadn't been voiced or thought about. A few times he had beem mistaken for a mute yet, with Serra, he had spoken more then he had in a long time. This fae was unusual, different. That wasn't a bad thing, no, but it was a confusing thing for Atem. "So many firsts looming ahead undiscovered" he said softly, mulling over his own words. Serra held many firsts for him...

Back in the den, Sunblaze was awakened by Akani. The little pup was whimpering and whining, little body shuddering as if she was cold. Sunblaze's brow furrowed in confusion as she curled closer to her pups, trying to warm her daughter. Weak coughs made the little body shudder and whine more, begging to be soothed but Sunblaze didn't know what to do for the ailing young one.

[Destiny]

Thite felt a shudder go down his spine. Rising he padded away from the den. Holding back the cough. He didn't want to cough or anything near the pups, they could catch whatever he had.If he had anything. Sitting by the river now. THite dipped his head to take a drink of water. Coughing as it went down.

Serra tilted her head with sudden curiosity. Mulling his words over. An uneasiness crept down her spine. Serra paused. Scenting the air. There was a strange scent too it. A very strange scent. She couldn;t quite figure it out. Fox? Couger? Another wolf maybe?

[Ärï]

Atem's ears raised and he looked back toward the Shanti River. His lips curled back and a low growl, a warning sound, rumbled in his chest. Hackles rose in unease and he subconciously took a step back. Something wasn't right.

Sunblaze whined worriedly as Akani continued to cough. Sunblaze licked the poor pup's pelt. She looked toward the den entrance. Thite had been there but he wasn't now. Sunblaze didn't know what to do for her little daughter. Another whine escaped the mother as she watched Sierra crawl away from Akani. Something wasn't right. Sunblaze could smell the toxin of sickness and it made her shiver.

[Destiny]

Finally, the heavy fit of coughing seemed to relax. Thite did not want to go back to the den though. He was afraid whatever he had would spread to the pups. Tiredly he lowered himself to his side. Lying down on the riverbank of the Shanti River.

Yoru whimpered softly. The pup inched away from Akani.

Serra too turned towards the Shanti River. "Do you smell that?" She asked Atem. Turning her crown too him now. The smell of sickness lingered in the air. It made her pelt prickle.

(Sorry, typing difficult, cat sliced open finger. PAINFUL.)